Peer Pressure Will Help You Dominate or Do Nothing, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO4

In this conversation of The MFCEO Project podcast, Andy Frisella, “the MFCEO” of Supplement Superstores and 1st Phorm International, explains that peer pressure can make you or break you.  Your peer group and the people you interact with regularly largely determines your success in both business and life.  So it is critical to choose your friends wisely.  Do they influence you to dominate--or do nothing?

Podcast Overview

Sixteen years ago, Andy Frisella, “The MFCEO,” and his business partner, Chris, started a company called Supplement Superstores with $12,000 they earned from striping the stripes on parking lots and now do annually over $100 million a year in business.  He started this podcast basically for three reasons.

•      To mentor people who don't have mentors
•      To motivate people in a real authentic way
•      Because he has a passion for motivating and helping people

Andy’s main motivation here is to help people realize what it takes to A) be successful. B) stay self motivated and C) hopefully for people to give back to others as well.

Episode Introduction

In this conversation of The MFCEO Project podcast, Andy Frisella, “the MFCEO” of Supplement Superstores and 1st Phorm International, explains that peer pressure can make you or break you.  Your peer group and those people you interact with regularly largely determines your success in both business and life.  So it is critical to choose your friends wisely.  Do they influence you to dominate--or do nothing?

Joining Andy is his co-host, Vaughn Kohler.  The two of them talk about how to seek out the kind of people who use peer pressure in a positive way.  Are they going to bring out the best in you?  Or are they going to be the type of people who are dead weight in your life, that you're going to have to cut loose?

Peer Pressure from "Haters?"

According to Andy, too many people on social media talk about “haters” and, while he understands the concept of trying to motivate yourself this way, “the reality is most people don’t have true haters ... You’re mentally creating limits in your own brain that do not exist in reality.”  The reason that most people don’t have haters, according to the MFCEO, is that “they aren’t doing anything with their lives.  So there’s nothing to hate.”  But if you are trying to really accomplish something, yes, there will be people who will not like your attempts at success.  They will use peer pressure against you.  And you have to learn to deal with those people.

People with Big Dreams Get Dissed

According to Andy, “When you have big dreams and you have big goals and big ambitions, you're going to make people uncomfortable and people are going to criticize you. They're going to say "Why are you doing that? You don't have to do that. You're wasting your time. You're a dreamer. You're unreasonable." That's part of the fucking deal. Anybody who's thought anything big has heard those things from their peers.

A Love of Cars and a Lesson about Losers

Andy says he grew up loving cars.  He played with Hot Wheels when he was a child and has been an automobile enthusiast his whole life.  Yet when he started getting really wealthy, he was hesitant about showing people his Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, you name it.  Honestly, he responded to negative peer pressure, even if it was only in his mind.  He worried about what people thought.  But then one day he decided, “Fuck it.”  And he said that now he really enjoys making a little kids day, when they see him drive into the gas station or a parking lots.  Teenagers and college students, especially, love coming up and asking to look at the car.  And that brings Andy happiness.  He says that the right kind of people will celebrate your success and the wrong kind won’t.  You have to surround yourself with the former and ditch the latter.

You only have so much energy.  Ditch those who drain it.

Andy says you only have so much energy in one day.  To succeed, you absolutely cannot spend your time with people who drain it.  So cut those who drain it--even if they are your family, including your mom and dad.  That may sound cut-throat.  But it’s necessary.  Sometimes it is your blood relatives who are the source of the most destructive peer pressure in your life.

If Someone is Neutral, They Are Negative

According to Andy, “If somebody's fucking neutral about your goals and dreams, they're fucking negative. That's it. The easiest way to identify negative people is if they're not fucking clapping when you fucking win, if they're not supporting you, if they're not telling you "Dude, go do that shit. That's awesome. I think it's cool," if they're neutral, don't say anything, cut them. That's how you know.”

Hating vs. Helpful Criticism

Andy offers a clarification.  There is a huge difference between legitimate criticism and "hating". If they are saying "Hey, Vaughn, you're doing this wrong and this is how I think you should do it," that's criticism. If I'm saying "Hey, Vaughn, you fucking suck," that's hating.  So pay attention. If somebody is offering you a way to improve with their criticism those are people who are just trying to fucking help you.

You Must Surround Yourself with the Successful

According to Andy, “If you're an entrepreneur, it's pretty much understood that you have a business and you're trying to be successful financially. Go find people who are also trying to be successful and financially successful and run a business. It's very simple. That's who you should be surrounding yourself and spending most of your time with, and if you can, people who are more successful than you. That's how you use peer pressure in a positive way.  And if you can't find successful people?  That's where books become such a good resource.  If you say 'I don't know anybody great or successful,' that's why they write fucking books. You know what I mean? Go read a book.”

Finding a Loyal Support Group is Hard and Takes Time

Andy admits it’s hard to find loyal friends or a supportive, positive peer group.  It just takes time. He says, “I feel like there's not one or two qualities you can identify with a good person to hang around with, but if you're talking about entrepreneurial people and peer group, you want to be around people who are going to fucking support you, who are going to encourage you, who are going to believe in you, who are going to think big, and they're going to want to have similar goals that you have for themselves. That's what cultivates energy. It cultivates positivity, it cultivates big ideas, it cultivates big action. That's what cultivates success.”

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE